Office hours and other useful information Following is information about when I am available and how you can contact me:

I am also available by appointment or when my door is open.

Text: Precalculus, sixth edition by Larson and Hostetler.

World Wide Web: I will maintain a course homepage that will contain links to all course handouts for the course. The URL for this course is http://www.gac.edu/~karl/courses/mcs120/f04/ , which you may want to save as a bookmark in your web browser.

Reading schedule and coverage: I am planning on covering at least the first six chapters of the textbook. The schedule webpages (one each for the first and second halves of the semester) are available off the course webpage. You should check the schedule to find out what we will be covered in a given class period. I will expect you to read through the section before coming to class. Please note that this schedule will be occasionally updated, and should be understood as being tentative.

Homework: I will be collecting homework approximately once a week. Please note that the assignments are due at the beginning of the class period and no late homework will be accepted, except for serious circumstances which are specifically allowed by me. I will, however, drop the lowest assignment score.

I expect all written work that you submit to be clear, correct, neat, and in complete sentences. I strongly recommend that you keep your homework (and tests) as a resource in studying for future tests.

Exams: We will have 5 in-class exams plus the regularly scheduled final. The days of the exams will be given on the schedules.

Determination of course grade: The homework will be worth the same as a regular exam, and the final will be worth twice a regular exam. If necessary, I will curve the scores to the standard scale: A = 90 - 100%, B = 80 - 90%, C = 70 - 80%, D = 60 - 70%, F = 0 - 60%. These curved scores will then be averaged (weighting the final as twice the others), giving your final percentage grade. I reserve the right to adjust the final grade; for example, if your scores show a definite trend upwards, I will probably give you a higher final grade than your percentage grade would suggest.

I will be happy to discuss how you are doing in the course at any time.

Honor: Every Gustavus student now agrees to abide by the academic honesty policy and honor code as a condition for enrollment. (I include here a link to the honor policy.) All students are expected to write and sign the following honor pledge on every examination and graded paper:

On my honor, I pledge that I have not given, received, nor tolerated others' use of unauthorized aid in completing this work.

Since there are two forms of assessment in this course (tests and homework), let me explain how this policy applies to each of these categories.

I will expect that each student does each exam entirely on their own. Since I will be proctoring the exams, I expect that there will be little issue here. I will put the standard honor pledge on the front of each exam for you to sign. The first violation of this policy on an exam will result in a 0 on that exam, and the Dean of the Faculty will be notified, as mandated by the policy. The second such violation will result in failing the course as well notification of the Dean of the Faculty.

Homework is a little different, since I encourage you to work on the homework together, though I want you to do so in an honorable way. This means that while you can discuss problems and their solutions, each of you should make a real effort to solve each problem by yourself, and you should give credit to any people or texts (other than the course texts) that helped you find solutions. Also, I expect that you will write up your work individually and never copy someone else's writeup. Should I detect students copying each other's work, I will on the first occasion talk with the people having similar work. On the second infraction, I will give you a 0 for that assignment and notify the Dean of the Faculty. Any further violation will result in increasing penalties, up to failing of the course.

For your convenience, I will put a copy of the honor pledge on the webpage for each homework assignment so that if you print this out, you can simply sign your name in order to agree that you have complied with the pledge.

Accessibility: Please contact me immediately if you have special physical circumstances, e.g. impaired vision, which may affect the accessibility of any course components. I will do my best to facilitate necessary arrangements or resources.